Elgar: Nursery Suite Mvt.1 Aubade - symphonic wind dectet

The Nursery Suite is one of the last compositions by Edward Elgar. Like Elgar's The Wand of Youth suites, it makes use of sketches from the composer's childhood.

There are seven movements and a coda:

1. Aubade (Awake) (this one)

2. The Serious Doll

3. Busy-ness

4. The Sad Doll

5. The Waggon (Passes)

6. The Merry Doll

7. Dreaming – Envoy (Coda)

The composition of the Nursery Suite came about when Elgar mentioned in September 1930 to William Laundon Streeton of HMV (the Gramophone Company) that he had lately run across a box of musical sketches from the days of his youth. Streeton suggested that, as Master of the King's Musick, he might suitably draw on them for a work to mark the recent birth of Princess Margaret Rose (then fourth in line to the throne).

The suite was dedicated to Princess Margaret, her older sister Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and their mother (the Duchess of York).

Arranged symphonic wind dectet and bass.

Preview is an mp3

Check on my other Elgar arrangements (including more of the Nursery Suite)